Virat Kohli’s post-match comments disappointing, says Darren Lehmann

Darren Lehmann was disappointed with Virat Kohli’s statement in Dharamsala that he can longer consider Australian players to be his friends.

cricketUpdated: Mar 29, 2017 16:10 IST

PTI

Dharamsala

Virat Kohli speaks during the post-match press conference in Dharamsala.(AFP)

Australian cricket team coach Darren Lehmann said on Wednesday that he is disappointed with India captain Virat Kohli for declaring that he is no longer friends with Australian players after an aggressively-contested Test series.

India defeated Australia by 8 wickets in the fourth Test match in Dharamsala to clinch the series 2-1.

In the post-match press conference, Virat Kohli said that he was proven wrong about what he felt about the Aussie players and he can no longer consider them his friends.

On whether he thought that the rest of the Indian team had sentiments similar to Kohli, Lehmann replied in the negative.

“No, I don’t think the Indian team (feels that), I too was very impressed with (Ajinkya) Rahane’s captaincy. I thought he was brilliant,” Lehmann said, trying to side-step the query by referring to Rahane’s stand-in captaincy during the fourth and final Test in Dharamsala.

Kohli had missed the series-decider owing to a shoulder injury and even that had been mocked by the Australian players.

“The way they have gone about it, it has been impressive. There are a lot of learnings for this group on this tour. They are hurting with the result at the moment but I am pleased with the effort and attitude. Smith will just get better and better.

“They have copped a lot from the Indian media. I am pleased with how they have handled it. We weren’t good enough in this series but we have got to keep learning,” he added.